Synthetic Biologist Aims to Create Pig with Human Lungs
By Lisa M. Krieger,
San Jose Mercury News
| 11. 14. 2014
Untitled Document
SAN FRANCISCO -- In a provocative cross-species experiment, scientists are striving to rewrite the pig genome so the animal grows lungs that could be transplanted into humans.
"We are re-engineering the pig, changing its genetic code," said genome pioneer Craig Venter at SynBioBeta 2014, an annual synthetic biology conference in San Francisco. "If we succeed with rewriting the pig genome, we will have replacement organs for those who need them," he said Friday.
His team at Synthetic Genomics is designing the project, he said, creating on computers the code needed to build the hybrid. By changing as few as five genes, they have created lungs that survived for a year in baboons, he said.
In other major news at the conference, Google confirmed that Stanford University bioengineer Drew Endy has joined its team at the secretive Google X, which created such projects as Google Glass, driverless cars and high-altitude Wi-Fi balloons.
The hiring of Endy, brought to Stanford's School of Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that Google seeks to explore the design and construction of...
Related Articles
By Jason Kehe, Wired | 04.11.2024
God help the babies! Or, absent God, a fertility startup called Orchid. It offers prospective parents a fantastical choice: Have a regular baby or have an Orchid baby. A regular baby might grow up and get cancer. Or be born...
By Neel Shah, The PrePrint | 04.11.2024
Years ago, I interviewed for a residency position at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Standing before the domed Victorian building at the campus entrance, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the history of the place, the great...
By Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times | 04.03.2024
By Eleanor Hayward and Joanna Crawford, The Times | 03.29.2024
Gazing out at the Mediterranean from an idyllic rocky mountaintop, Sophie Hermann announced to her half a million Instagram followers that she had decided to freeze her eggs. Since that post in August, the 37-year-old former Made in Chelsea star...